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Life’s Ultimate Questions “Augustine”

Christopher Ullman, InstructorChristian Life College

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Augustine (354 – 430)• Born in what is now Algeria, North Africa• Christian mother Monica had a strong influence• Was sexually promiscuous

• Has mistress from age 17-29• Fathers an illegitimate son at age 19

• Follower of Manicheanism from age 19-28• Dualism provided an answer to the problem of evil

• God wasn’t all good, and • Therefore evil’s existence had a rational cause

• Was able to keep on partying

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Augustine’s Path to Christianity • Found his talents as an orator and as a teacher

could make a good life for himself• Ambrose planted seeds of faith by removing reasons

for doubt• Platonic philosophy also removed reasons for doubt• Life of sin held him in bondage • Converted to Christianity at age 32

• “Take up and read” – Romans 13:13-14• Hearing from God delivered him from his sin and

convinced him to surrender to Jesus

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The Problem of Evil, or Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good

People?The Problem: How can these three statements all

be true?1. God is all good2. God is all powerful3. Evil exists, but why?

• Either God isn’t all good, or • God isn’t all powerful

Why should I believe in a being who either isn’t strong enough or good enough to put an end to evil?

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How Humans Have Tackled the Problem of Evil

Atheism (there is no such being as God):Agnosticism (if there is a God, he can’t be known,

and is irrelevant):• Evil undeniably exists• Humans must find answers to reduce the effects of

bad moral choices• Quit blaming a devil• Quit waiting for help from a non-existent (or nonchalant)

god• Ultimately, either “Life’s a b_ _ _ _, and then you

die,” or “Life is what you make of it”

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How Humans Have Tackled the Problem of Evil

Manicheanism (and Zoroastrianism, Greek paganism, and Eastern paganism):

• Deity isn’t all good• multiplicity of gods, or dual nature within one god• constant struggle between good and evil

Process Theology (influences present in Social Gospel Movement, Liberation Theology, Amillennialism):

• God isn’t all powerful• Believers pool their moral resources with God’s finite

goodness• Together, evil eventually is defeated

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How Humans Have Tackled the Problem of Evil

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, New Age:• Evil doesn’t exist

• Moral dualism is an illusion• Merge with the One, or• “Awake” in Nirvana, or• Find peace in the Yin and the Yang• All will be well when you

• Cease to believe in “good vs. evil” and • Find the god within

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How Humans Have Solved the Problem of Evil

Christianity, Judaism, Islam:• God is all good and all powerful, and evil does

exist• Moral evil (sin and its direct consequences) is a

necessary condition of humans having free will (“the free-will defense”)

• Non-moral evil (natural disasters, etc.) exists to perfect us (“the vale of soul-making defense”)

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A Closer Look at EvilAugustine let the problem of evil keep him from God,

so after his conversion he studies the undeniable reality called evil (Confessions includes some of humanity’s deepest thoughts on the subject)

• All God’s creations were good• Some goods were higher than other goods

• Angels and humans have the ability to choose• This ability was corrupted when they chose lower goods

instead of higher goods

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More about EvilAugustine taught that evil’s “existence” is not

independent • Evil is the privation of Good

• Evil/Good = Darkness/Light• Evil/Good = Death/Life

• Evil parasitizes the Good• The parasite’s existence is never of a higher order

than its host’s existence

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Still More about EvilAugustine taught that evil’s “existence” is not

necessary • God existed first, and God is good• Evil entered creation when will (a good faculty) was

misused• Humanity’s main problem is the perverted will

• Good can be appreciated without there being evil• The City of God is inhabited by humans with

converted wills• It will never go away, even though Rome goes away (this

is why Augustine wrote The City of God)

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What We Know from the Beginning• The notion of unity

• This is one dog• This is not merely an accumulation of

manydog parts

• It isn’t your senses that led you to know that this is one dog

• How then do you know it is one dog?

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What We Know from the Beginning (continued)

• The Forms• Remember Plato and his concept that

ideas are eternal?• The idea of “one” is one of those eternal ideas

• Eternal ideas are the foundation stones of all human knowledge

• You don’t recall the Forms from a past life• God implants these concepts in you from

birth, since you are created in His image

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How We Know Eternal Truths (Universals)

• Not by human teaching alone• Christ teaches us

• Christ’s presence in us illuminates our minds • This isn’t a once-for-all event, but a

continual process• Your unaided human mind is necessary but

not sufficient for the task of knowing

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How God Makes Knowledge Possible

• He creates each human as a rational being

• He equips the mind with predispositions to think in certain ways (the internal light)

• He continually illuminates our minds to be able to know (the external light)

• Psalm 36:9 “. . . In your light, we see light.”

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Why We Can Be Good• Imago Dei (Genesis 1:26-27 & 9:6, Psalm 8:5-8)• Original Sin has distorted this image. It makes all

humans • Morally flawed (Romans 5:12) • Bent toward evil Romans 3:9-18), and • Needy (Romans 5:6-8)

• God’s perfect, unchanging moral character is the ground of all hope for goodness

• God transforms the broken will of humans, and joyful obedience can be realized (Romans 8:1-4)

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What is History?• Rome was sacked in 410, and pagans thought

Christianity was to blame• Augustine sought to encourage the frightened Romans,

and to refute the pagan accusation• He introduces the “Two Cities” concept

• The City of Man• The City of God

• History is a linear record of these two cities, not a cyclical pattern of eternal repetition

• Only one life, t’will soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last